Editorial: Biofuels – a paler shade of green

Since George W. Bush pledged a major US effort to develop biofuels in his State of the Union address earlier this year, it seems the whole world has joined the rush to convert corn, sugar, cassava, sorghum and palm oil - not to mention cooking fat and farm waste - into the fuels of the future.

From China and Indonesia to India and Cuba, everyone wants to turn crops into energy. The European Union is even considering a mandatory 10 per cent biofuel content at every pump. The dream is to cut reliance on fossil fuels while also reducing net greenhouse gas emissions and even helping hard-pressed farmers. And yet, there is a downside to all this.